[SGVLUG] Outsourcing IT - Re: What is a Linux Admin? What should I learn/know?

[matti]

imho

Outsourcing your IT plumbers, and the
future of system admins.

> An possibly overused metaphor is the plumber

when you REALLY need a plumber, you want someone
who knows your system well and is available.

Will the outsourced team care about you as
much as an "insourced" team? NO WAY, unless 
YOU are the largest customer they have and
their income/job depends on you!

Also remember the issues about the ability of
the outsourced team to retain it's talent.
( example Indian Programmers were jumping jobs less
than an year in recently to gain 10-20% more
income.. )

Outsourcing is very popular, however what the
can easily be outsourced is "standard" stuff.

It's hard to outsource THIS version of an OS,
with THESE patches, with THESE customizations.

i.e. It is hard to outsource custom systems and
the related applications.

For emergencies I personally want to know someone
who really cares and is available will be there.


There will be IT admin jobs at outsourcing companies,
and in those cases certifications will be more
important for the individuals to obtain.


Personally I don't like the idea of outsourcing the
"magic" that makes the company/group special. Thus
anything which isn't a plain vanilla system/program
I want in house people touching. ( helps to reduce
the outsourcing from sharing my secret sauce with
others. )


In theory, systems should be getting easier to manage
and with moore's law we should see less systems doing
the workload. Indeed i think this is the case, so
overall one would think that the IT staffing would
be decreasing...

THE main issue i think that will require continued
IT manpower resources be the case is security issues.

While our systems have gotten MUCH more security
the number of security breeches continues to grow.


Salary:
Experienced System Admins and Programmers/Software
Engineers are in about the same ball park for 
Salary iirc. I've seen some highly paid DB/software
engineers making more than managers.

In theory you can outsource a lot and save,
I always have been wondering why didn't
we outsource all the AIG management to off shore
for a LOT cheaper. Certainly we could have found
someone we paid 10% of what AIG management got 
paid and lost LESS! %^)

HECK they could have paid ME 5% of what they
got paid, and I could have NOT setup ANY of these
credit default swaps AND the company and the US
would have been much much better!!

best
matti